Yellowcake to China

Canberra, Australia

Australia clinched a deal this week to supply China with uranium for nuclear power plants. The deal is worth billions of dollars a year to Australia, which is home to 40 percent of the world’s supply of uranium ore but has no nuclear reactors of its own. But Australian opposition parties were critical of the sale, saying the yellowcake might end up in Chinese nuclear bombs. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said “strict safeguards” were in place to prevent such diversion. But he added: “China has a nuclear weapons program whether we like it or not. It’s not going to make the slightest difference whether we have this agreement with China or whether we don’t to their nuclear weapons program.”

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